I write a weekly travel column for the Columbia Daily Tribune. This blog had focused on stories about American Indian Sites and includes more pictures than my column allows for. I added some stories about native people in other places and will now be putting in stories about American Presidents homes and museums and stories I have written about historical places and museums in the United States.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Mukseum of Transportation: St. Louis

THE MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION: ST. LOUIS

In the last 150 years we have
made unbelievablegains in how we move
ourselves and our stuff around.These
advances in transportation are on display at the Museum of Transportation in
St. Louis County.The Smithsonian
Institution recognizes this museum as, "one of the oldest and best
collections of transportation vehicles in the world."

Arailway car pulled by a mule, 5 cents a
ride.

It's more than transportation
that we learned about on our visit.For
example, we saw a small railway car from 1870 which was pulled by a mule.The fare was a nickel, the driver was paid
nine and a half cents an hour and three cents was spent each day in the winter
to put straw on the floor to help keep the riders warm. In the interests of its
welfare the mule only worked six hours a day.

Next to the railway car was a
large produce truck that sold fruit and vegetables as it moved around St. Louis
streets.This was a productive way of
life until 1950 when supermarkets came into being and the peddlers went out of
business.Different kinds of buggies and
sledges were the older forms of getting
around.

A
horse drawn hearse

A collection of travel
outfits of the old days along with travel equipment are on display.We were most impressed with the heavy fur
coat that protected drivers against the winter winds given the openness to the
air of old forms of travel.

We moved up the hill, past
the Miniature Train Station where rides are available to the Lindburg
Automobile Center.Having personally owned
cars manufactured as far back as 1929, I always find these sections especially
interesting.

A beautiful white 1923
Stanley Steamer was on display next to a old Pierce-Arrow motorcycle.The Steamer had a large water tank or boiler
for an engine.It claimed it could run
on anything that burned, was quiet, had few parts and didn't require
gears.In the early 1900 they were more popular than gas
engines.Companies stopped making them
after 1924.

A 1920's Pevely Milk Wagon
was a look back into my past.In the
1930's few people had refrigerators and glass bottled milk was delivered
daily.One horse pulled the wagon and
that horse knew the way.That is, the
driver would take a batch of bottles and deliver to a number of houses and the horse
would walk around the corner and know where to meet him.

An 1890's horse-drawn hearse
had glass sides so the coffin could be viewed by the mourners as it was towed
down the street to the graveyard.Since
the coffin was to be on view, people would often put more expensive adornments
on it than they could afford.

Further up the hill was the
Roberts Pavilion with more than 70 locomotives and many train cars. According
to the museum brochure this is the most complete collection of American rail
power in the world.Frankly it was too
much to see and understand.After
walking through several old passenger cars and looking in some others, we moved
on.

Special attention is paid to
Owney, the traveling dog in a contest where you hunt for Owney posters
throughout the museum and you win small prizes such as a museum coloring book
or a free bag of popcorn.Owney was a
mutt who wandered into an Albany, New York post office in 1888, and he ended up
riding trains carrying mail.In nine
years he traveled 140,000 miles around the United States.Later his friends at the post office arranged
for him to travel around the world on a steamship.In July, 2011, Owney was honored on a U.S.
first class Forever Stamp.

The museum is very interested
in providing educational experiences for all grade levels. Classes can be
arranged for school groups in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics.

2 comments:

The professional movers of Europa-Road Kfthave got amazing skills in relocating the offices, chattels, familiy goods and lot more. They aim to provideincomparably high-quality logistics as well as domestic and international transportation services to the customers